2010 Mazda 3 - speaker, sub + 2 amp install

[RCdemoral]

Hey All!

OK, so, Here is The Project™

• (4) Pioneer TS-d680-2rs
• Pioneer 7900BT deck. It rocks, had it for... 6 years? Since 2007!
• MTX Jackhammer something something 400watt, 10"
• Rockford Fosgate 400ph? 2 channel, 400 watt
• Dual 4 channel 40 watt/side into 4 ohm
• lots of RCA cables
• 16 foot 4 AWG cable -> found out it was Aluminum. Equilavent to 8 AWG copper. Had to rebuy...
• 20 foot actual Copper, 4 awg cable
• cables cables

All neat and organized for now.

The first steps it take out the stock deck, put in harness and jazz. I didn't document it sadly, but let's assume I didn't mess up there.

Second step is to find WHERE to put the power wire through. There are many threads out there - the most common one is through the clutch plate. I drive stick so no dice there. Some also say behind the glove box, there is an unused hole with a plastic cover that pops out. No dice on mine.

I spent about 2 hours taking $hit apart and trying to find the best place, and I found it. It's right behind the glove box - you have to drill but it's almost ASKING to be drilled. Watch:





This is with the glove box taken out. It's literally 2 screws (maybe one?) and otherwise it just POPS out. Some other forum had a step by step, but it was sooo easy.



And here's the place. It has a little fold out thing, and it's PERFECT for it. The engineers left a nice spot for us


Next to drill... (I used a titanium drill bit and a regular cordless drill. The same you use to screw screws with - you don't need special tools. The bits are metal bits, super cheap at canadian tire for a pack.)

After I drilled the hole, I put in a grommet (plastic is all I could find that size, but it works)




Now this is the embarrassing part... I accidentally deleted a bunch of pictures on my phone. I'll take more next weekend, but here's the power line running through the engine:




But pray tell, where did I run the wires? This is the fun part. Since the power line was going through the passenger side, I ran the power /amp turn on through the passenger side, and the RCA cables through the driver side. I took apart the interior upholstery (some few clips you gotta watch out for, otherwise it all just pops out). I also took out the back seat to have room to work:







I then ran the power wire through there. You'll see in some pictures the wire is blue, others red. It's a mish mash of pics, but the blue is the Copper Clad Aluminum, which I only found out later. It's only 60% efficient compared to Copper. So a 4AWG is really basically an 8AWG cable. Since my load for my amps is roughly 110 amps, 8 guage doesn't cut it (~80 IIRC). I need 4 guage, which can take around 140 amps.

So I installed it. Then tore it apart and installed it -again-.


note: When running your amp-turn on wire... add a 2.5V fuse within 18" of your head unit. This protects it from your amp in case of shenanigans. It's a $3 part from Canadian tire.




Here's the RCA's and the power cable.



Next step is to find a good ground (Make sure it's less than 18 inches and same AWG as the power wire!!!). You can go under the seat and use the seat belt screw. It's a big screw and didn't give too much contact with the O terminal, so I went on the side of the trunk, and drilled in the hatch upholstery:



^^ you can go here




But I went here. Again, I lost these pictures, I'll re-upload them later.




So then I had my power cabling, sub woofer running, all fused properly and I had plenty of current for my wiring.

Next week I'll upload pics (detailed I swear) of my door tear down, making 3/4" MDF spacers for the speakers, and speaker install. I didn't end up using Dynamat... didn't hear any rattling, but I only installed them today, time will tell.

After that, will be the wiring for the speakers from the 4 channel amp, the distro block (I used a copper distro bus, since all my power wires are the same guage - no need for a fused distro block), and then clean up

Oh and I installed red LEDS in the foot well - turns on when the main headlights go on. SUPER EASY. I just tapped into the glove box light. You'll see. (it's only a few milliamps or something tiny for LED lights, so not an issue there)

** VERY USEFUL ** - when cutting out the speaker wires from the stock, these are the stock speaker wiring codes

• Driver Front - White positive, Yellow Negative
• Passenger Front - Red Positive, Blue Negative
• Driver Rear - White positive, Green Negative
• Passenger Rear - Blue positive, Brown Negative

Questions? Ask away!

[Hyperion]

Nice. Wish this was around before I paid for mine to be installed.